Polyclinics could close 1700 general practices, Conservatives claim

Polyclinics could lead to the closure of more than 1000 surgeries in London, more than three quarters of the total in the capital, and a further 600 in the rest of England, says the opposition leader David Cameron.

The Conservative party leader has warned that the clinics are a threat to general practices because “Gordon Brown is trying to nationalise GP surgeries and to make GPs salaried employees of the state,” he said in a speech to health specialists at the King’s Fund, in London on Monday.

If the proposal for more polyclinics, which are expected to be recommended in the forthcoming report from Ara Darzi, goes ahead, patients would lose the one to one relationship that they have with their …